If you haven't yet heard the name Njideka Akunyili Crosby, then you haven't been paying attention, as she is a young (32-year-old) Los Angeles-based artist on a meteoric rise and her work is phenomenal--the most jaw-droppingly wonderful and accomplished work I have encountered in an age. That said, I walked right by it at the New Museum's 2015 Triennial: Surround Audience, where both her two paintings on view and I were overwhelmed by the hubbub. Akunyili Crosby has since gone on to have simultaneous solo exhibitions at L.A.'s Hammer Museum and Art + Practice and to win the Studio Museum in Harlem's Wein Prize. As of November 23, 2015, a billboard entitled Before Now After (Mama, Mummy and Manna), which reproduces one of her paintings, … [Read more...]
Notes on Beijing: My introduction to art in China
First, some general comments with regard to Don's and my hotels and sightseeing during our brief stay in Beijing. Whereas we stayed in the nondescript Westin Hotel Bund Center in Shanghai, in Beijing we spent several nights luxuriating at the Opposite House, located in a lovely neighborhood replete with high-end stores and foreign embassies. The hotel is new, hip and styling (part of the Swire Hotel chain, which also manages the Upper House in Hong Kong, another of our favorites) and we were upgraded to an enormous, incredibly well-appointed room, which we loved. As it was raining the night of our arrival, we ate in one of the hotel's restaurants, Sureno. Don and I sent back a shrimp appetizer that we found sub-par, only to have the chef, … [Read more...]